Winter Reflections: The Routines of Life

 

Daily life is made up of routines. Those simple things we do that make life flow during the day. I've thought a lot about routines since hubby retired almost a year ago now.

We have our morning routines. Hubby starts the fire to warm things up and I get the coffee made. After that we sit by the warmth of the fire, sip our coffee and talk about our plans for the day. He usually has some project he's working on or weather providing he is outside doing various tasks. I have home things I work on, chat/text with family, work on YouTube videos. And so the day begins for us.

In the afternoon I usually have either a cup of coffee or sometimes I'll have a cup of tea. The tea makes me smile and remember and think of the days when my daughters were young and I was homeschooling them. In the winter afternoons our routine was to make tea and have some homemade snack. Sometimes it was just a slice of warm, just out of the oven bread, with butter, if it was baking day. Other days it might be cookies, or fruit. But we'd sit in the living room, drinking our tea, enjoying our snack and then I might read from whatever book had captured our attention at the time.

Several years ago my hubby & were on vacation. We were enjoying the heat and sunshine by the hotel pool. We met a couple from England. We enjoyed each others company quite a bit. The following year we were back at the same place around the same time and so were they. After that we exchanged addresses and phone numbers. We stay in contact with them to this day.

One of my observations of them is that every afternoon they had “tea” as they would call it. Not that they actually drank tea, but it was their ritual or routine to break in the late afternoon. It was usually coffee and a pastry of some sort. I loved seeing this. My personality is one that loves the routines of life and this made me smile.

One year of retirement life has given us the opportunity to change our routines and create new ones. No longer do the work days consist of hubby leaving and me making sure he has his lunch and hot coffee as he hits the road. Or spending my time working on my daily life while he is gone (or while sleeping as he worked many, many years on graveyard shift). Now we are creating new routines, new rituals of life, and while we've both had adjustments to make in different ways, it has been the best blessing for the both of us.

I think winter is the best time to reflect on our routines, make adjustments where needed and to enjoy the flow of everyday life.